My thoughts on the Phillies season.

Results tagged ‘ Eppa Rixey ’

Behind the stellar pitching of Jamie Moyer, and a defensive meltdown by the Blue Jays, the Phils end Interleague Play with a winning record, as they defeat the Blue Jays, 11-2.

The Phils took the lead in the second as, with two men on, and with nobody out, Ben Francisco hits an RBI single, scoring Ryan Howard, who had earlier walked, and had moved up to second on Shane Victorino’s single, giving the Phils a 1-0 lead, while sending Victorino, who had just singled, on to second base. Three batters later, now with runners on the corners, thanks to Wilson Valdez’s force out, 5-4, wiping out Francisco at second, while sending Victorino to third base, while Valdez was safe at first, and with two men out, Dane Sardinha hits a two-run double, scoring both Victorino and Valdez, giving the Phils a 3-0 lead. The Phils then made it 4-0 as Jimmy Rollins hits an RBI single, knocking in Sardinha. The Blue Jays cut the Phils’ lead in half in the third as, with a runner on base, and with two men out, Vernon Wells hits a two-run home run, his nineteenth home run of the season, and the 506th given up by Jamie Moyer, establishing a new major league record for the most home runs allowed by a pitcher, knocking in Alex Gonzalez, who had earlier doubled, making it a 4-2 Phils’ lead. The Phils would get the runs back in the fourth as, with two men on, and with two outs, Rollins hits an RBI single, scoring Ibanez, who had earlier singled and was safe at second on second baseman’s Aaron Hill throwing error on a force attempt on Valdez’s grounder, making it a 5-2 Phils’ lead, while Valdez, who had reached first on Hill’s error, moved up to third. The Phils then made it 6-2 as Chase Utley hits an RBI single, knocking in Valdez, while Rollins would stop at second base. The Phils then added to their lead in the fifth as, with one man on, and with nobody out, Victorino hits an RBI double, scoring Howard, who had just doubled, making it a 7-2 Phils’ lead. The Phils then busted the game wide open in the seventh as the Blue Jays’ defense had a melt down. The innings starts as, with one man out, Howard reaches base on shortstop Gonzalez’s throwing error as his throw took too long to reach first base, thus allowing Howard to reach base safely. After a single by Victorino, moving Howard to second base, Francisco hits an RBI double, scoring Howard, making it an 8-2 Phils’ lead, while sending Victorino up to third. After Ibanez is wallked to load the bases, Valdez hits a grounder to Hill, who then committed his second error of the game as he threw the ball wide of Gonzalez when he tried to force Francisco out at second, thus allowing both Victorino and Francisco to score, making it a 10-2 Phils’ lead, while allowing Ibanez to reach third and Valdez to reach second. Sardinha then follows by hitting a grounder back to relief pitcher Jason Frasor, who then tried to force Ibanez back towards third, but instead threw the ball past third baseman Jarrett Hoffpaquir for a throwing error, the third Blue Jays error of the inning and their fourth in the game, allowing Ibanez to score, to make it an 11-2 Phils’ lead, while sending Valdez to third and Sardinha to reach first safely on the fielder’s choice grounder. That would end up being the final score as David Herndon and Danys Baez would combine for two scoreless innings.

Jamie Moyer gets the win as he pitches seven strong innings, giving up only two runs on six hits, while striking out seven. His record is now 9-6 with a 4.30 ERA. He is now the 40th pitcher in Major League History to pitch over 4000 innings, while he is now number 36th on the all-time wins list with 267 wins, passing Hall of Famers Bob Feller and Eppa Rixey. David Herndon and Danys Baez combine for two scoreless innings, giving up just one hit (Herndon) and walking two (one each) between them. Brett Cecil took the lost as he pitches only four and two-thirds innings, giving up seven runs, five of which were earned, on ten hits and one walk, while striking out five. His record is now 7-5 with a 4.39 ERA. Casey Janssen pitches a scoreless inning and a third, striking out a batter. Jason Frasor pitches two-thirds of an inning, giving up four runs, all unearned, on two hits and a walk. Brian Tallet pitches a third of an inning, giving up no runs on one hit and a hit batter, while striking out two. David Purcey pitches a 1-2-3 inning.

The Phils had thirteen hits in the game, with Jimmy Rollins, Shane Victorino and Ben Francisco leading the way with three hits each. Rollins had three singles, knocking in two runs, while Victorino’s three hits were two singles and a double, knocking in a run, and Francisco’s hits were a single and two doubles, knocking in two runs. Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, Raul Ibanez and Dane Sardinha had the other four Phils’ hits, with Utley and Ibanez’s hits being singles, with Ultey knocking in a run, and Howard and Sardinha’s hits being doubles, with Sardinha knocking in two runs. Wilson Valdez had the other Phil RBI on a fielder’s choice error, while the other two runs came in on Blue Jays’ errors. At the moment, it would seems that the offense is back, although all of the components are still not there, with Carlos Ruiz on the disabled list and Placido Polanco’s elbow hurting him again.

The Phils (40-33, 3rd NL East) will now start a three-game series with the Reds (42-34, 1st NL Central) with a nightgame. The game will be played at Great American Ball Park and will begin at 7:10 pm Eastern. Kyle Kendrick (4-2, 4.71) will get the start as he is coming off a bad start against the Indians on June 23, as he lasted only four innings, giving up four runs on six hits and two walks, while striking out one, in the Phils’ dramatic walk-off 7-6 win. He will be trying to pitch a good start. The Reds will counter with Johnny Cueto (7-2, 3.97) who is coming off a win against the A’s on June 23, as he went seven strong innings, giving up just seven scattered hits and two walks, while striking out four in the Reds’ 3-0 win. He will be trying the mastered the resurgent Phils’ offense. The Phils will try to build on their winning home stand while on the road against two Central division clubs.

Jamie Moyer pitches eight strong innings as he collects career victory no. 266, tying him for 36th place on the all-time wins list with former Indian Hall of Famer Bob Feller and one time Phil Hall of Famer Eppa Rixey, as he leads the Phils to a 2 to 1 win over the Indians.

The Phils took the lead in the first as, with two men on, and with one man out, Ryan Howard hits an RBI single, knocking in Placido Polanco, who had earlier singled, and then moved up to second base on a Chase Utley walk, giving the Phils a 1-0 lead, while sending Utley, who had earlier walked, over to third base. The Phils then made it 2-0 as, with runners now on the corners, and with still only one man out, Jayson Werth hits a sacrifice fly, scoring Utley. The Indians would cut the Phils’ lead in the second as, with two men out, Russell Branyan hits a solo home run, his tenth home run of the season, and the 505th home run given up by Phils’ starter Jamie Moyer in his 24-years career, tying him with the late Hall of Famer Robin Roberts for this dubious distinction, making it a 2-1 Phils’ lead. The game then became a pitchers’ duel between Moyer and Indians’ starter Mitch Talbot. Talbot would give up only two more hits and two more walks to the Phils after the first inning, escaping a jam in the fourth as Shane Victorino hits into a 4-6-3 double play with runners on first and third, and with one man out, as Raul Ibanez, who had just singled, is called out at second for runner’s interference on the play, thus preventing a run from scoring. This call would lead to Charlie Manual being ejected from the game for arguing over the call. Moyer, meantime, would only give up one more hit and one walk after the Branyan home run, as he escapes a two on and two out jam of his own in the sixth by getting Carlos Santana to fly out to left. The Indians then tried to put together a rally in the ninth as they were able to get two men on, Shin-Soo Choo with a single and Santana with a walk, after J.C. Romero had started the inning off by getting out the lead-off man. Brad Lidge is then brought in, and proceeds to record his fifth save of the season in six attempts by first striking out Austin Kearns swinging and then striking out Jhonny Peralta, also swinging, to end the ball game.

Jamie Moyer gets the win as he pitches eight strong innings, giving up only one run on two hits and a walk, while striking out five. His record is now 8-6 with an ERA of 4.43. J.C. Romero records his second hold of the season, as he gives up just one hit and a walk. Brad Lidge picks up his fifth save of the season as he strikes out both men that he would face. Mitch Talbot took the lost as he pitches seven innings, giving up two runs on four hits and three walks, while he strikes out three. His record is now 7-6 with 4.08 ERA. Kerry Wood pitches a 1-2-3 inning.

The Phils had only four hits in the game, with Ryan Howard having two of the four hits, both singles, as he knocks in a run, raising his average to .294. Placido Polanco and Raul Ibanez had the other two Phils’ hits, both singles, while Jayson Werth knocks in the other Phil’s run with a sac fly. The Phils’ offense, once again, went cold, but thanks to Moyer’s strong outing, it was enough to win the game, but it shows that the team is once again not playing the way that everyone expects them to play.

The Phillies (36-32, 3rd NL East) will continue their three-game series with the Indians (26-43, 5th AL Central) with another night game. The game will be played at Citizens Bank Park and will start at 7:05 pm Eastern.The Phils’ starter will be Kyle Kendrick (4-2 4.48), who is coming off a win against the Yankees on June 17, when he pitched seven strong innings, giving up a run on four hits and two walks, in the Phils’ 7-1 win. He will be trying to pitched his second straight good outing while trying to capture his fifth win. The Indians will send to the mound Jake Westbrook (4-4, 4.76), who is coming off a lost against the Mets, also on June 17, as he pitched seven innings, getting tagged for five runs on eleven hits and two walks, while striking out five, in the Indians’ 6-4 lost. He will be trying to keep from being smoked for the second straight start. The Phils will be trying for their second series win in three tries, while hoping that they can actually smoked the Indians, while also hoping that Jimmy Rollins will regain his batting stroke tonight.

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